Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Racial profiling of Chinese American scientists never ends

This piece originally appeared in Asia Times and reposted on New America Media. (See also Congressman Ted Lieu's letter to Attorney General Lynch demanding a full investigation.)

It simply boggles the mind
that with an African American in the White House and an African American as the
Attorney General, persecution of Chinese American scientists based on racial
profiling not only has not abated but actually intensified.

Professor Xiaoxing Xi, former
head of the physics department at Temple University, was the latest of a bumper
crop of Chinese Americans that became victims of racial profiling.

Joyce Xi reminded us of this
development recently when she gave a series of presentations at Stanford, UC
Berkeley and Hastings Law School describing how her father and family were
brutalized by the FBI.

Early dawn in May, the agents
broke into their home with guns drawn, manhandled Professor Xi, handcuffed him
behind his back and took him away without any explanation on reasons for his
arrest. The agents insisted on keeping Mrs. Xi in another room and interrogated
her for hours. Joyce happened to be home from college and could see that her
12-year old sister was traumatized.

According to Peter
Zeidenberg, legal counsel for Xi and the family, the government accused Xi of
wire fraud based on his having borrowed a piece of test equipment, a so-called
pocket heater, in 2006. Zeidenberg went to the inventor of the heater who
confirmed that none of the “evidence” Xi was accused of sending to China was
related to the design of his invention.

Furthermore, the invention
was patented but never commercialized so that even if Xi had sent the drawings
to China, the government would not have a case that economic damage was done.

The government investigators could
have just as easily verified the findings as Ziedenberg did, but the Obama
Administration has been so obsessed by the idea that China is out to steal
everything, hysteria and paranoia have replaced rational thinking.

In lieu of a professional investigation,
the government leaps to prosecution. If the suspect is a Chinese American, he
is ipso facto guilty.

Xi’s case harkens back to the
celebrated case of Dr. Wen Ho Lee, then a scientist working at Los Alamos
National Laboratory. Lee was accused of leaking the design of multi-head
missile to China and incarcerated in solitary confinement for 10 months.

Eventually, the presiding
judge apologized to Lee for gross government misconduct before releasing him,
but even then Lee had to plead guilty to one charge in exchange for time
already served.

Preserving the reputation of
the American judiciary system that the government is never wrong is far more
important than any damage done to the civil rights of its citizens.

If the government couldn’t
get Lee to accept one guilt plea, the government would have no justification
for having kept him in jail and that meant the government made a mistake.

No different from the
governments under Nazi Germany or Stalin’s Soviet Union, our government does
not make mistakes—none that they could admit. For the U.S. government to
apologize is out of the question.

Professor Ling-chi Wang, then
head of Asian American studies at UC Berkeley, was outraged by the injustice
Lee suffered in the hands of the government. He organized a national boycott of
the national laboratories and urge Asian American scientists to stop applying
for jobs at the laboratories.

Whether it was because of the
sobering effect of Lee’s treatment or the subsequent boycott, new applicants to
the national labs did drop off significantly and senior staff were leaving for
non-government sector or taking early retirement.

Because Asian Americans make
up 5% of the U.S. population but 25% of PhDs in the technical disciplines, the
management of the national laboratories was rightly alarmed and concerned.

What to do with unfilled
vacancies in the labs? Fill them with the best-trained lawyers and politicians
and let them conduct weaponry development?

A typical response attributed to a Nobel laureate and scientific
advisor to Congress: "Every physics, engineering and life sciences
department has brilliant young scientists born in Asia and the Pacific Rim, and
we'd be in deep trouble if we didn't have them here."

It was true fifteen years ago and even more so today.When Professor Xi came to the U.S., he was
already a recognized world authority in his field of superconductive thin film.
How he has been treated will surely give pause to others considering their
career options.

In recent years there were other cases of Chinese Americans that
were targeted and arrested. They were charged with espionage or committing
economic crimes against American interest on behalf of China.

Unlike Xi’s case, some of the victims spent years in mental
suspension, not to mention the constant financial drain in legal bills, before
the government abruptly dropped the charges. Invariably there would be no
explanation and, of course, no apology. Not all the victims would want to
relive their agony by going public with their taste of American justice.

The Sherry Chen case became public because of reports by New York Times. She was also arrested,
handcuffed and taken away in front of her co-workers. She was accused of
unauthorized access to certain data about dams. Zeidenberg was also her
attorney and he pointed out that the person that gave her the password for
computer access was not Chinese and was recently promoted.

After federal prosecutor dropped all charges, her employer the
Department of Commerce, apparently suffering from the embarrassment of bringing
the charges against her, is not going to re-hire her--again, inconceivable that
the government erred.

In Xi’s case, to add insult to injury, Joyce explained that the
government’s case against her father was dropped “without prejudice,” meaning
that the case is technically live and the government has the right to re-open
the case in the future—consistent with the government’s inability to face up to
admitting a mistake.

Thus in addition to the legal expense Xi incurred to prove his
innocence, the cloud of suspicion will continue to dog him for the rest of his
life in the U.S.

One of the advantages of working in academia as opposed to a
national lab is the freedom to collaborate with anyone in the world. Such
collaboration can take the form of joint research, sharing of ideas and papers
and in Xi’s case sharing of samples. Other experts consider Xi’s sample films
wonderfully pure and excellent for testing their ideas and experiments.

Academic collaboration and exchanges benefit all parties that
participate in them. It is a principle fundamental to the advancement of
science and knowledge. Putting Xi under surveillance and suspicion is
equivalent to restricting his ability to do unfettered research.

To ultimate loser in this xenophobia will be the United States.

At Hastings Law School, the San Francisco based Asian Law Caucus
handed out a 6 point advice under “Know Your Rights,” as briefly summarized
below.

Rule 1 – If FBI or law enforcement come calling, you have the
right to say, “I want to speak to a lawyer before speaking with you.”

Rule 2 – It’s a crime to lie. An honest mistake such as mixed up
on dates could be held against you. That’s why you need a lawyer by your side.

Rule 3 – Asking for a lawyer won’t make you more suspicious and
talking to lawman without one could get you in trouble.

Rule 4 – Just because FBI contacts you do not mean you’ve done
anything wrong or that you are under investigation.

Rule 5 – FBI has no right to ask you about your political or
religious beliefs, such as how you feel about U.S. China relations.

Rule 6 – If you think you are being discriminated by your
employer, consult an attorney immediately

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

Americans are people who expect the authority ceded to those who govern, will be applied according to standards that consider human rights and secular law. Implementation is ephemeral and requires vigilants like you, to rouse us to notice, then change governmental performance. We, the people, are the power. Celebrate our freedom from any President so potent that his lone dictate could end "racial profiles". Your sharing and airing of your views, is the remedy. Actions your article references disgrace us all.gz

Speaker Availability

Dr. Koo speaks on non mainstream view of US-China relations, racial profiling of Chinese in America, business strategies for Asia, and travelogues of China, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and Middle East. His fees are negotiable dependent on nature of host and audience and specific topic of presentation.

About George Koo

George came to the U.S. as a child from China, grew up in Seattle and educated at MIT, Stevens Institute and Santa Clara Univ.
Dr. Koo has recently retired from a world leading advisory services firm where he advised clients on their China strategies and business operations. He is founder and former managing director of International Strategic Alliances.
He is a former member of the board of directors of Las Vegas Sands and a current director of New America Media.
Dr. Koo is a frequent speaker in various public forums on China and U.S. China bilateral relations. He writes for Pacific News Service (New America Media) on issues relating to Chinese Americans and to U.S.-China relations.
He is a member of Committee of 100 and Pacific Council for International Policy.